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What I've Been Reading
1. India, by Michael Wood. This book looks ordinary but it is a wonderful (selective) history which captures the magic of India. Recommended to both the beginner and the expert.
2. Las Benévolas, by Jonathan Littell, the Spanish-language edition of this famous French novel just came out (I don't read French). Here is the French edition. Here are some of the raves. Here is a critical review. I loved the first twenty pages and was bored by the next thirty. We'll see how far I get in this Spanish-language edition of almost 1000 pages. My current best guess is that a WWII-themed novel of this kind simply can't be that original. The French love it, perhaps, because an American-born writer wrote it in the French language.
3. Angus Maddison, Contours of the World Economy, 1-2030 AD. This is a good summary of knowledge about economic growth, by a premier empirical economist. But, as I am already familiar with the basic literature, I couldn't find any reason to keep on reading.
4. The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World, by Eric Weiner. This book is well-written, witty, and deserving of its current bestseller status. At first I thought it was just fluff, but its applied, anecdotal, and travel-based approach gives one of the better windows on happiness across cultures. His particular observations are astute, especially on Switzerland and Thailand; in the latter case, referring to sex, he writes that something which cannot be shoved under the rug is now regarded as a piece of furniture.
5. Virginia Postrel on Ron Paul, no spam bots please.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on January 10, 2008 at 07:06 AM in Books | Permalink
Comments
I read Les Bienveillantes last year and I must say that I have a great deal of awe and admiration for the book. Just keep reading.
Posted by: Dalibor Rohac at Jan 10, 2008 7:32:34 AM
Ron Paul would end the war on drugs, everything else is minor in comparison. THEY ARE PUTTING YOUNG MEN IN JAIL FOR SELLING POT! Ron Paul has many flaws but his proposed policies are good in net. I guess now I will shift my support to Obama as far as I know he has made no indication that he will end the war on drugs but he seems most likely of the front runners.
Posted by: Floccina at Jan 10, 2008 8:59:10 AM
Floccina,
Why do you want to shift your support to Obama, just because he has a better chance of winning? Even if Ron Paul doesn't win the political market needs the indicator that there are people thinking in the right direction.
If you really believe in what he says then go for it, your signalling is important!
Posted by: Abhi at Jan 10, 2008 10:26:27 AM
I agree with Abhi. Since your vote doesn't count anyway, why not make it a symbolic one?
Posted by: Christina at Jan 10, 2008 11:05:20 AM
Abhi and Christina you make a good point, I guess that I mean my hope is now in Obama. I am still a Ron Paul supporter.
Posted by: Floccina at Jan 10, 2008 11:13:11 AM
ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA – In response to an article published by The New Republic, Ron Paul issued the following statement:
“The quotations in The New Republic article are not mine and do not represent what I believe or have ever believed. I have never uttered such words and denounce such small-minded thoughts.
“In fact, I have always agreed with Martin Luther King, Jr. that we should only be concerned with the content of a person's character, not the color of their skin. As I stated on the floor of the U.S. House on April 20, 1999: ‘I rise in great respect for the courage and high ideals of Rosa Parks who stood steadfastly for the rights of individuals against unjust laws and oppressive governmental policies.’
“This story is old news and has been rehashed for over a decade. It's once again being resurrected for obvious political reasons on the day of the New Hampshire primary.
“When I was out of Congress and practicing medicine full-time, a newsletter was published under my name that I did not edit. Several writers contributed to the product. For over a decade, I have publicly taken moral responsibility for not paying closer attention to what went out under my name.”
Posted by: Chris at Jan 10, 2008 1:35:14 PM
I wish someone had warned me about Virginia Postrel before I wasted 45 seconds reading that.
Posted by: steve at Jan 10, 2008 1:45:55 PM
Tyler,
what happens to all the books you read after you're done with them?
Posted by: Unit at Jan 10, 2008 4:03:17 PM
At the first sign of political incorrectness, all the below-the-Beltway "libertarians" have dumped Ron Paul like yesterday's garbage. Now they can rest easy that they will still be invited to the parties thrown by their lobbyist and government employee and contractor friends, who for a second or two got worried by all those Google searches that Ron Paul might have some influence, resulting in some of them losing their jobs (end the income tax with no replacement?! The guy is obvioiusly a kook, and we don't invite the supporters of kooks to our parties!). Now everybody around the Beltway can go back to partying at the taxpayer's expense. All the money will keep flowing in, hooray!
So much for libertarian political activism. It is futile.
Posted by: formerbeltwaywonk at Jan 10, 2008 4:53:42 PM
Ugh, I've known about the RP newsletters for a while. I didn't realize their were quite so many controversial quotes, but his campaign rhetoric now is so far from those comments that I gave him a pass for it. I was told that the staffer who was responsible was fired. That seemed reasonable.
I gave him a pass on being so close to conspiracy theorists. He was taking the position that it was government incompetence, not conspiracy, as the reason he wanted a larger 9-11 investigation. That seemed reasonable.
I gave him a pass for not believing climate change was man made. I agreed with his private property rights solution, so that seemed reasonable.
I gave him a pass for his nativist rhetoric with regards to the NAFTA Superhighway. His "conspiracy of ideas" in regards to most of our leaders having an affinity towards world government (the huge bureaucracies of the E.U., U.N., etc.) is a concern, despite the xenophobic feel of it. That seemed reasonable.
I gave him a pass for his pandering on the immigration issue when he started calling for reduced student visas. His main argument was that the welfare state caused immigrants to be looked upon as scapegoats. That seemed reasonable.
I gave him a pass for not believing in evolution. He's not an overt Christianist and it wouldn't be a major issue. He said if that was the main issue of our day, he wouldn't be running for President. That seemed reasonable.
However, when the results from New Hampshire stated coming and he was in 5th place, I started to wonder what happened. I started retracing the last 8 months. Now, 5th place seemed reasonable.
Posted by: Yogi at Jan 10, 2008 5:21:20 PM
All that is to say, Tyler, you were right when you said you weren't too excited about him.
Posted by: Yogi at Jan 10, 2008 5:28:23 PM
What's completely shocking to me is why Alex Tabarrok is an ADJUNCT FACULTY member at the Mises Institute, whose president Lew Rockwell is most likely the author if not the editor of the at least some of the Ron Paul Reports material.
http://www.mises.org/faculty.aspx
Posted by: JSTR at Jan 12, 2008 9:56:22 PM
Concur w/formerbeltway. The piling on RP is amusing. What a bunch of vichy-libertarian fools. No wisdom or morality whatsoever. Keep on collaborating people. Keep believing that a bunch of Southern, racist former Democrats who believe in the rapture really mean it this time about "smaller government" when all they've attempted to do is put Jesus' plan into effect at the federal level. Or that a bunch of pro-union socialist totalitarians will protect anything other than your freedom to swear.
I don't really understand what vision of the vichy-libs have of the future unless all they care about is continuing to receive their subsidies for meaningless, technocratic work that the free market wouldn't support. Kudos to the collaborators.
The "nutters" in my view are anyone who would waste a penny or second on any other candidate. Let the masses pick; they're all the same. This empire will crumble like all the past ones.
Posted by: jdd at Jan 12, 2008 10:51:14 PM
